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J & J Lawyers: FDA Knew About Secret Recall

Lawyers for Johnson & Johnson insist regulators knew it was secretly pulling ineffective Motrin from store shelves last year, rather than issuing a public recall.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) -- Lawyers for Johnson & Johnson insist government regulators knew the company was secretly pulling packets of ineffective Motrin from store shelves last year, rather than issuing a public recall.

Documents the J&J attorneys turned over to congressional investigators hours ago seem to show the Food and Drug Administration received multiple company reports about the effort to remove small containers of faulty Motrin from convenience store shelves.

But the lawyers say they have no documents from the Food and Drug Administration approving what's been dubbed the "phantom recall" of Motrin in the first half of 2009.

What the FDA knew, and when it knew it, has become a central part of a House panel's probe of the phantom recall.

J&J isn't commenting.

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